Kambo is the secretion of the giant monkey frog, Phyllomedusa bicolor, which lives in the Amazon basin. It contains a family of peptides that act on the gut, the cardiovascular system and the immune response. A practitioner makes several small superficial burns on the skin, usually on the shoulder or lower leg, and applies dots of the dried secretion to them.
Within a minute or two your face flushes and swells, your heart rate climbs, and a heavy pressure builds. Most people vomit. Twenty to forty minutes later it stops, fairly abruptly, and you spend the afternoon feeling wrung out and unusually clear.
Nothing about it is psychedelic. You are completely present, aware of the room, able to speak and to ask the practitioner to stop.
Sessions are held in daylight, in the open treatment space, with one practitioner working with one guest at a time.
Timings are approximate and vary by person. This is the shape of a session as we run it, on a rest day, in the morning.
Kambo clearance is confirmed separately from your ayahuasca clearance. Blood pressure is taken, and if anything has changed during the week, the session is postponed or cancelled. Nobody is talked back into it.
You drink roughly a litre of water beforehand, and no more. This is the detail that matters most: the deaths associated with Kambo are overwhelmingly linked to excessive water loading, so we measure it rather than telling you to drink as much as you can.
Several small superficial burns, usually four to six on the shoulder or lower leg, made with a smouldering vine tip. They sting for a few seconds. They are shallower than most people expect and leave small round marks that fade over months.
Dots of the secretion are placed on the points. Heat rises through the chest and face almost immediately, the heart rate climbs, and the face may swell noticeably. The practitioner stays directly beside you from here.
Heavy pressure in the head, a pounding heart, strong nausea, sometimes shaking or a brief drop in blood pressure. Most people purge somewhere in here. This is the part people describe as intense, and it is the part that ends.
The intensity fades in waves rather than all at once. The practitioner removes the points when they judge it is time, which can be earlier if you ask. You lie still, warm, and slightly stunned.
Swelling reduces within the hour and is usually gone by evening. Most guests feel wrung out and oddly light. Electrolytes and a small amount of food follow when you are ready.
Sleep, the garden, a plant bath in the afternoon if you want one. No ceremony that night and none the night before. The next ceremony is at least twenty four hours away.
Say so and the points come off. The effect subsides within minutes of removal. Nobody will ask you to hold on a bit longer, and nobody in the group is told whether you finished the session.
Small round scars, roughly the size of a match head, that fade over six to twelve months and sometimes remain faintly. Worth knowing before your shoulder is visible at a wedding.
One trained practitioner working one to one, with the retreat physician on the property. Fluid intake is measured throughout and blood pressure is taken before and after.
People arrive assuming these are two strengths of the same thing. They share almost nothing except the region they come from and the fact that both are screened before you are allowed near them.
| Kambo | Ayahuasca | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Frog secretion on the skin | A brew of vine and leaf, drunk |
| Psychoactive | No, fully conscious throughout | Yes, profoundly |
| Duration | Twenty to forty minutes | Five to six hours |
| When | Morning, on a rest day | Night, four times in the week |
| Setting | One to one with a practitioner | Group of twelve, two maestros |
| Main risk | Cardiovascular load and water loading | MAO inhibition and medication interaction |
| Can you stop it | Yes, points removed and it subsides in minutes | No, once you have drunk it you ride it out |
| Included | Yes, optional, no extra charge | Yes, four ceremonies every week |
Being cleared for one tells you nothing about the other. Plenty of guests are cleared for ayahuasca and declined for Kambo, and occasionally the reverse.
Kambo loads the cardiovascular system and shifts fluid balance quickly. That risk has nothing to do with the MAO inhibition governing ayahuasca screening, so it gets its own assessment against your file, and it is declined on its own terms.
The Sacred Valley sits high enough that cardiovascular load and dehydration both matter more than they would at sea level. We screen Kambo harder here than a jungle center needs to, and we cancel sessions on marginal days rather than proceeding.
These lists are not exhaustive and nothing on this page is medical advice. Send your file, including supplements and anything prescribed since you applied, and let the physician decide.
The other half either are not cleared or decide they do not want it, and neither group is asked twice. Because it costs nothing extra, we have no reason to push it, and because it is genuinely unpleasant, we would rather you chose it deliberately.
If you are already anxious about the ceremonies, skip it on a first visit. Adding a hard physical experience to a week that is already demanding rarely helps anyone.
Kambo is part of the $5,800 seven night retreat for guests who are separately cleared and who ask for it. We do not price it as an add-on, because charging for it would give us a financial reason to recommend it. That is not a discount, it is a safeguard.
The burns sting briefly, comparable to a small cigarette burn but shallower. The hard part is not pain but the physical intensity of the twenty to forty minutes after: heat, pressure in the head, a pounding heart and nausea. Unpleasant rather than painful, and it ends abruptly.
Most people do, usually within the first ten minutes. Some do not. It is expected and prepared for, and nothing about the session is judged on whether it happens.
It carries real risk and there have been deaths, mostly linked to excessive water loading, unscreened cardiac conditions, or untrained practitioners. We measure your water rather than loading it, screen separately for heart and blood pressure conditions, and run one practitioner to one guest with a physician on the property.
We make no detox claims. Your liver and kidneys handle that, and the vomiting is a response to the peptides rather than toxins leaving your body. We describe what happens accurately and let you decide whether you want it.
Small round marks about the size of a match head, four to six of them, which fade over six to twelve months and occasionally remain faintly. Placement can be somewhere less visible if you ask beforehand.
Yes. Say so and the points come off, and the effect subsides within minutes. Nobody will ask you to hold on, and the rest of the group is never told either way.
No. Kambo is always on a rest day, in the morning, at least twenty four hours from a ceremony in either direction. We do not stack medicines, and Kambo is not preparation for ayahuasca.
The frog is not killed and is released after collection, though demand has led to poor handling elsewhere in the trade. We source only from communities who collect traditionally and release the animal, and we will name the community your medicine came from if you ask.